in Australia, the
sloth only in South America, the polar bear only in the Arctic regions.
How could Noah, in those days of difficult locomotion, have journeyed in
search of these across broad rivers, and over continents and oceans?
Did he bring them singly to his dwelling-place in Asia, or did he travel
hither and thither with his menagerie, and finish the collection before
returning home? There are, according to Hugh Miller, 1,658 known species
of mammalia, 6,266 of birds, 642 of reptiles, and 550,000 of insects;
how _could_ one man, or a hundred men, have collected specimens of these
in those days, and in such & brief space of time? The beasts, clean and
unclean, male and female, might be got together by means of terrible
exertion; but surely to assemble the birds and reptiles and insects must
transcend human capacity. Some of the last class would of course not
require much seeking; they visit us whether we desire their company or
not; and the difficulty would not be how to get them into the ark, but
how on earth to keep them out. Others, however, would give infinite
trouble. Fancy Noah occupied in a _wild-goose_ chase, or selecting
specimens from a wasps' or hornets' nest, or giving assiduous chase to a
vigilant and elusive bluebottle fly!

But suppose Noah to have succeeded in his arduous enterprise, the
question still remains, how did he keep his wonderful zoological
collection alive? Some of them could live only in certain latitudes; the
inhabitants of cold climates would melt away amidst the torrid heat of
Central Asia. Then, again, there are some insects that live only a few
hours, and some that live a few days at the utmost: what means were
adopted for preserving these? Some animals, too, do not pair, but run
in herds; many species of fish swim in shoals; sometimes males and
sometimes females predominate, as in the case of deer, where one male
heads and appropriates a whole herd of females, or in the case of bees,
where many males are devoted to the queen of the hive. These could
not have gone in pairs, or lived in pairs; their instincts pointed
to another method of grouping. How did Noah provide for _their_ due
preservation? When these questions are answered others speedily arise;
in fact, there is no end to the difficulties of this marvellous story.

2. Whence and how did Noah procure the food for his huge menagerie?
That he was obliged to do so, that the animals were not miraculously
preserved without food